oscar_statue.jpgAs Jon Stewart takes to the stage this Sunday at 8 pm to host the 78th Annual Academy Awards, the movie-lovin' Gothamist will be watching with eager anticipation from our couch. The spectacle, the glamour, the bad musical numbers and cheesy memorial montages -- we love it all. In fact, Gothamist (ie. Jen Chung and movie correspondent Karen Wilson) will be live blogging the ceremony but in the meantime, here's a few predictions for the winners:

Best Actor: This category is crowded with stellar performances from stoic David Straithairn in Good Night, and Good Luck to explosive Terrence Howard in Hustle & Flow. We'd love to see Phillip Seymour Hoffman repeat his Golden Globe win for Capote but we think it's between Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain) and Joaquin Phoenix (Walk the Line) with Heath edging out Joaquin.

Best Supporting::This category seems to be rewarding this year the flawed man performances with psycho gangster William Hurt from A History of Violence, racist cop Matt Dillon in Crash and Jake Gyllenhaal with his cheatin' heart from Brokeback Mountain. Paul Giamatti (Cinderella Man) may get some love purely out of guilt for past snubbings by the Academy but we have a good feeling about George "hunky former TV doctor made good" Clooney in the complex political thriller, Syriana.

Best Actress: Two of the ladies in the lead category have take home statues in the past, Charlize Theron (North Country) and Judi Dench (Mrs. Henderson Presents), though the later was for best supporting. While Felicity Huffman in Transamerica has the most transformative role in the running this year (for the record playing transsexual trumps bad mullet, Charlize) and Keira Knightley is pretty darn cute in Pride and Prejudice, we're feeling it for the adorable and emotionally resilient Reese Witherspoon's role in Walk the Line.

Best Supporting: Another category of top notch acting, with the always solid Catherine Keener (Capote) and Frances McDormand (North Country) wowing us as usual. Also there's the contingent turning around the industry's perception of them as acting light-weights, ie. Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardner) and Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain). But we feel the Academy's tendency to reward an unknown who delivered a spectacular performance will be replicated in a statue for Amy Adams (Junebug).

More after the jump...

Writing (Adapted): We're hoping this is the category where Capote is rewarded for being such a fascinating character study, as the portrayal of author Truman Capote as both brilliant, charismatic and a bit of an insensitive jerk was completely compelling.

Writing (Original): Our hopes are also hung up in this category as we'd prefer to see Crash rewarded here rather than in Best Picture, though we wish this could go to hometown boy Noah Baumbach for his tale of a Brooklyn family in the '70s falling apart, The Squid and the Whale.

Directing: This is a hard category to pick because we could envision it going a bunch of different ways. To first director Bennett Miller for Capote or second time director Clooney for Good Night or even old work horse Steven Spielberg for Munich. But in the end, our prediction lies with Taiwanese genius Ang Lee for Brokeback, especially after his complete self-deprecating and humble acceptance at the Globes.

Best Picture: As we mentioned, there's been buzz that Crash has snuck up the odds break down but we still feel pretty strongly that the gay sheepherders have a lock on it for Brokeback Mountain.

Animated Feature: We like Wallace & Gromit In the Curse of the Were-Rabbit for the statue but that may be because the cheese loving franken-rabbit Hutch completely stole our heart.

Documentary Feature: It's all about the Penguins, baby. March of the Penguins, that is.

See all the nominees on the official Oscar website. Any contenders you are really rooting for this year? Any worst case scenarios that will have you swearing off moviegoing forever?